Which to use
“fosse” and “frise” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,964
- “fosse” frequency rank
- #17,430
- “frise” frequency rank
- 25394
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fosse | frise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cavité dans le sol, le plus souvent artificielle. | Partie de l’entablement qui est entre l’architrave et la corniche. |
Where the eye mixes fosse and frise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fosse (CVCCV) and frise (CCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses fosse with frise
A purely visual mix-up. fosse (\fos\) and frise (\fʁiz\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25394, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fosse is recorded at frequency rank #7,964, classified as anoun, pronounced \fos\. frise is at rank #17,430, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁiz\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 25394, this pair ranks #341,121 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fosse vs frise
Shared letters: efs. Private to "fosse": o. Private to "frise": ir.
"fosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "frise" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fosse" and "frise" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "fosse" vs "frise" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fosse" and "frise" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fosse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #341,121 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fosse" and "frise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "frise vs fuse". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #341,121 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.